(CEP News) - U.S. crude oil inventories fell for the first time in five weeks, despite forecasts for an increase, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday.

Crude oil inventories fell by 138,000 barrels in the week ending Feb. 13. Analysts were expecting inventories to show another build of over 4 million barrels.

Last week, crude oil inventories showed a build of 4.717 million barrels and in previous weeks inventories have shown builds of 6.1 million, 6.2 million and 7.2 million barrels, respectively

WTI crude prices jumped almost a dollar on the news, hitting session highs of $36.92 barrel. Strategists have said that concerns of growing supply and weaker demand are the two factors hurting oil prices.

Although, crude inventories fell, EIA reported a rise in gasoline inventories, which rose 1.105 million barrels. Distillate inventories fell 813,000 barrels and refinery utilization rose by 0.72%.

Despite last week’s decline, EIA said high inventories still remain a problem with supply growing across the board. It reported that crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

By Neils Christensen, neilsc@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca

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Posted in Categories: Commodities, Releases, USA.

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